Preparing For Progression Assignment

 For this assignment it was cut into three tasks.

Monologue

The first task was to do with monologues where for Uni's we need to have at least 2 classical and 2 contemporary monologues. We started off the lessons with classical monologues or Shakespeare monologues. We only had to learn one and have the other as a spare that we could learn later down the line for Uni auditions. The Shakespeare monologue I had chosen was from Julius Caesar, it's from Act 1 Scene 2 of the show and it is Cassius' monologue to Brutus where he is trying to get him to join him in his plan to kill Caesar. The monologue is written as Cassius is telling a story to Brutus about when him and Caesar where younger and he had to save his life, yet Caesar has then become a god and rules them all whereas Cassius must bow down to him whenever Caesar nods on him. He is telling the story to Brutus to make Caesar look weak, and that anyone like him or Brutus could easily kill this so called "god". The Monologue first starts off with a calm manor but when the story starts to get told Cassius starts to grow with anger. When performing the monologue I had been told that I need to work on slowing it down as I would rush through bits trying to remember it all because it was a long monologue. So when it comes to recording them for Uni auditions I will keep that in mind to take it nice and slow so that its not only clear but I can work on the emotions better of how Cassius would be feeling at certain times in the monologue. 
I had recorded my monologue twice, the first time I had recorded it I missed a line but just kept going and then stuttered half way through trying to remember it cause it threw me off. I then recorded it again the next week was alot more prepared and knew it I ran over it once as not to get it stuck too much in my own head incase I get carried away and mess a line up, I went into the room and got every word and sentence right the only problem was I got too in the moment and carried away and ended up speeding through it. I said to Tom afterwards it was better than last week there was alot more emotion and I didn't mess but I also felt as I had rushed through it and even Tom agreed all thats left now is to familiarise myself with now another Shakespeare monologue and two contemporary monologues.

UCAS Statement

The second task of this assignment was to send at least one draft of our UCAS personal statement to Tom. Which I have completed. I had only done the first paragraph explaining my journey of how I have gotten to where I am today. The feedback I had been given was to make it seem like everything that had happened before coming to Stockton Riverside College to do acting was a positive and not that I had just fallen into it. 


Self Reflection

Why you chose the Universities/Conservatoires you chose?

At the moment I only have 2 choices that I have confirmed on m UCAS profile so far but I have more that I have done research on and ordered a prospectus for the Uni so that I can get a feel of what it will be like. The two Uni's I have confirmed are MetFilm School in Leeds, this is for the acting for screen course and the second Uni is Arden School of Theatre in Manchester, this is for the acting course where you do both stage and screen. The reason I have chosen these Uni's is because I have heard positive things about them from students who are there now, also from researching I have read what the course would entail. My preference is mainly screen which is why MetFilm School is high on my list but I also want to try more stage as well so I have been looking for Uni's that do a good course including both stage and screen so I can get a taste of both worlds. I have also got open days coming up as well to give me a better feeling of what Uni I would like to go to if I get accepted into more than one. Here is my list at the moment. 

• MetFilm School - Leeds - Course is Acting for screen (Confirmed on UCAS)
  
• Arden School of Theatre - Manchester - Course is Acting (Confirmed on UCAS)
• York St Johns
• Performers - Birmingham - Course is Acting for Stage, Screen & Digital Media (Still Researching)
• LMA - Liverpool - Course is Acting and Performance (Still Researching)
  

These are the main 5 I have been looking into but there have been some more that I have been researching or showed interest in. 

Why you think you're right for them?

I may not have as long an experience as most people who apply for these courses, but from the experience I have had, I have worked hard to get to where I am. I have been in multiple stage performances, even having to learn 2 roles for some as I multi rolled in a show once. I have done performances in a professional theatre, doing immersive experiences with an audience. I have also done a couple of film roles on the course and put myself out there for auditions all the time when our end of year films came around. I'm good at taking on lots of different things/roles at once as for the end of my first college year, I had to learn 4 film scripts and 2 stage scripts where I multi rolled in one of them. I have done research on practitioners, doing a power point on practitioners, getting the class to do warm-ups that my chosen practitioner would link to. I have a wide knowledge on monologues and duologues as I have performed some in front of classmates and teachers, getting off script as fast as I can, I also annotate scripts with great detail so I can understand the character more. 

What skills you need to improve to help you get there?

A big thing I struggle with is being clear when performing, I tend to spit out my words fast when I get nervous at the start of shows. Also when recording for short films I always end up rushing the first couple of lines so you can't make out what it is i'm trying to say. When doing accents I tend to mispronounce words as well then stumble over what it was I was saying. 

What do you want to achieve from your time in HE?

What I want to be able to achieve is staying on the path I am on right now, keeping my acting career going and hopefully improving on what it is I need to work on so that when I reach that next step it doesn't hold me back from progressing further with my experience of where I want to end up on tv one day.